4 8 4 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



where the members dispersed, taking away with them the most 

 pleasant of impressions of their trip through Fermanagh and 

 Sligo, and of the genuine Irish hospitality and kindness which 

 they met with on every hand. 



BENEVENAGH. 



The fourth regular excursion was held on Saturday, July 

 30th, when the members visited the fine basaltic mountain 

 of Benevenagh, near Limavady. Rising abruptly from the 

 fertile alluvial plain that lies behind the sands of Magilligan 

 Point, this mountain towers up to a height of over 1,200 feet, 

 its lower slopes clothed in pine woods, above which the high 

 cliffs rise in serried ranges to the lofty summit. The Field 

 Club party left Belfast by the 8.15 train in a saloon carriage 

 which the manager, with his usual and well-known courtesy, 

 had specially reserved. At Ballymena the English mails, 

 which had come by the narrow-guage railway from Larne, 

 were taken aboard. Coleraine and the Bann were soon left 

 behind, and the express flew through the tunnels of Downhill 

 and under the magnificent range of cliffs that faces the Atlantic, 

 and by the kindness of the manager of the line was specially 

 stopped at Bellarena Station to allow the party to alight. A 

 short walk brought the members to the foot of the mountain, 

 and by the permission of the owner, Sir Frederick W. 

 Hey gate, his estate was thrown open to them, and an easy 

 ascent was made by a broad avenue through woods of fir, 

 with a dense undergrowth of ferns and grasses. Here the 

 botanists made the first record, a number of specimens of the 

 curious bird's-nest orchid [Listera nidus-avis) being obtained. 

 A short halt was called while the announcement was made that 

 two prizes would be offered for competition during the day — 

 one for the largest collection of flowering plants, the other for 

 the rarest twelve flowering plants obtained. Mr. R. Lloyd 

 Praeger, M.R.I. A., made a few remarks on the botany of the 



